Originally Posted by
pettdan
I'll chime in, even though I'm really unsure about the order here - feel free to ignore the list. I think the list depends on which version you play against and what sideboard cards you have, thus I have commented on the matchups and my reasoning and if anyone thinks I'm wrong somewhere I'd like to read your comments. E.g. I always play tutor+plague (lately even double plague) which is pretty good vs elves and tutor + leyline + RiP and pithing needle/-s which have been good vs reanimator.
Grixis Delver (w Cabal T)
Show and Tell (w Omni)
Storm(TES) / Elves
Shardless Bug
Grixis Delver (w/o Cabal T)
Show and Tell (w/o Omni)
BR Reanimator
Death/Stoneblade Variants
Death and Taxes
It's been a while since I played these decks, and I'm really unsure about the list - thus comments.
Grixis Delver should be an ok matchup, Choke can win it but if they play t2 Pyromancer and t3 Probe + Therapy the whole hand is gone and it's really difficult to come back. I tried Depths + Stage as a meta call in an important local tournament and it worked out, Knight can be hard for them to remove and similarly Marit Lage who they can't block many turns and have some difficulty in fighting. We have enough creatures to not worry about Diabolic Edict.
Show and Tell used to be a good matchup but Kozilek's return means all the hatebears die, unless we can put a sword/jitte with counters on them (and these are tempting to board out). Show into Omniscience can be troublesome but Canonist and Thalia with Qasali backup cab answer that. I'm trying Prelate now who answers all the problematic cards.
Storm and Elves feel pretty equal to me, but I usually play against TES which is quicker than ANT (a disadvantage for us, also they have Burning Wish which doubles as sweeper/win condition) and he knows I'm often on Maverick and by default Therapies t1 for Thalia if on the draw. Regarding Elves maybe it's worse than I feel but with Wasteland and plenty of removal it's often possible to delay their combo-wins, and that can buy time to get an active Jitte [edit: and/or Gaddock into play]. I don't feel like it's super bad, and post sideboard discard and engineered plague help out a lot in slowing the game down further to get Jitte online.
Blade decks - Thalia + Wasteland is ok, Deathrite gives further tempo advantage, StP takes their Deathrites and we have 6 Qasali + X decays to make sure they never get any equipment online. I feel like it's usually pretty ok. [edit: and Titania can swing the game and win quickly with an active KotR/Mother, Sigarda good too but easier to race with TNN, equipment etc]
Shardless - I didn't play against this deck for a long time but Thalia + Wasteland is great, we have a mana denial deck and they are very mana hungry. Also Sigarda or Titania usually wins the game. So as far as I remember starting out by StP-ing their Deathrite, following up with our own Deathrite/Thalia/Wasteland that they need to deal with and then playing KotR, untapping Knight and getting Cradle, tapping Cradle for a) GSZ for Titania/Sigarda, or b) playing, equipping and connecting with Jitte/Sword of F&I is a pretty good gameplan. With Choke being very good too. Still Deluge + Planeswalkers is a bit tough. Aura Shards was very good in this matchup since you just destroy all Strixes and Agents for free, you just need to answer their goyfs.
BR Reanimator - I feel slightly favored in this matchup, maybe that is wrong but if they don't have the super great start we have a lot of relevant 1 cmc-cards before and after boarding, and even when they have the great draw chances are I have my 1 of Leyline too (much less chance of course) or t1 tutor into t2 rest in peace. They have potentially great starts but are more vulnerable to mulligans while we have a lot of ways to answer their not blazing fast starts - and with leyline sometimes there is even the very easy wins. [edit: Pithing Needle on Griselbrand means an StP answers their entire gameplan, Karakas too to some extent]
Death and Taxes - we win the removal, the equipment and the topdeck battle and thus the game.
